Critical Thinking Theory & Media

We cannot simply accept what we read on the WWW, or in other media, as truth.

Incorporating new data into practice requires filtering, development, adoption and the goodwill of all stakeholders. To simply accept data as knowledge is wrong. We must critically reflect on this information, and, with experience, wisdom, discourse we can move closer to truth and enlightenment.

We must explore truth as we understand it, to come to a better understanding of ourselves and our world. We must question what we perceive as truth, take it out and hold it up to the light in the presence of others to approach enlightenment.

There is some discussion, by Steve Paikin on The Agenda, Politics in the Classroom, around Stanley Fish's book, Save the World on Your Own Time. What many of the profs were saying is that we must encourage students to arrive at highler level thinking skills, not as vessels to be filled, but as thinking sentient human beings whose thinking processes must be honed and shaped. They need to be exposed to consistent, valid, supported arguments, and this, I believe, is true of all media expressions.

Students come to class "laden with unexamined opinions, which lead to fuzzy thinking.", said Kerry Borman*. And I agree. I believe that all editors must examine the opinions that more and more journalists mask as news reports and aim for unbiased, fact-based information that balances the three aspects of truth: my view, your view, and the truth.

Margaret Wente, in a response to the arbitrated York U. strike, makes some telling comments about university, its purpose, the lack of professors teaching, and tenured professors intentions in this age of technology and information. As I wrote to one prof, we still have dinosaurs who teach as if we are in the Hunting & Gathering Age, and have failed to adapt and adopt to the needs of society as it stands. Partly I think it due to the structure of these institutions, also, to the mistake that all of us need a university education to make our way in this world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Kerry Bowman is an assistant professor in family and community medicine at the University of Toronto, and a bioethicist the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics.